Effective Discipline for Kids

One of most common reasons that parents request family therapy is when one or more of their kids are out of control. How’s Your Family Really Doing? describes how problems in a child can be related to many different factors but an obvious place to start is by asking yourself, if you are a parent, if your current forms of discipline are working or not. If the answer is no, or if you are a prospective parent and want to get some training in advance, or if you feel you could use a little tune-up, rest be assured there are lots of good resources available to you.

An outstanding contributor to the field is Dr. Thomas Phelan who developed the 1-2-3 Magic program. He describes the oft-repeated negative chain reaction that begins when a parent wants a particular behavior from a child. Don’t all parents wish to avoid the Talk-Persuade-Argue-Yell-Hit Syndrome? The goal of this highly teachable program is first to eliminate or at least radically reduce the child’s obnoxious behaviors, then encourage positive behavior and after those are accomplished, to work on strengthening the parent-child relationship itself. In the 15 years since the first book 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 came out, other books and workbooks have followed which apply the model to teens, to kids with ADHD, and to parents who have a hard time saying no.